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Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of the Interior takes a selfie with his supporter in Orbassano near Turin, Italy, on 15 June 2018. NurPhoto/ Press Association. All rights reserved.

What happens in these two countries matters
and deserves much more attention. It is also time to re-assess the forces at
play in Europe and claim a more equal union, especially in the Eurozone.

Electoral legitimacy

For all its limits, the unusual Italian ‘yellow-green’
coalition government reflects the choices of a vast number of citizens. This is
the first time since in late 2011 an entirely ‘technocratic’ government of
unelected experts, led by Mario Monti, was catapulted into politics by
President Napolitano as a result of urgent public debt issues. Let us not
forget that, since the end of the Cold War, Italy has had other ‘technocratic’
governments (Ciampi and Dini in the 1990s), some governments led by academics
with party experience (Amato and Prodi in the 1990s and 2000s), and only two led
by professional politicians (D’Alema in 1998-2000 and Renzi more recently), who
actually became Prime Ministers without winning the ballot. On top of all of
the above there has been the ‘Berlusconi case’. So it is fair to say that at
least the inexperienced Conte-Di Maio-Salvini government has some electoral
legitimacy (The League and the Five Star Movement altogether received about 16
million votes for the Chamber and slightly less for the Senate).

Such a legitimacy is what the highly
experienced President, Sergio Mattarella, clearly disregarded when he vetoed
the appointment of Paolo Savona as Economy Secretary, only to accept the latter
a few days later in a less important role (European Affairs Secretary). Mattarella
deemed Savona’s appointment was risky because of his supposedly ‘Euro-sceptic’
ideas. To be honest, Paolo Savona, a well-known Economics Professor and an
expert on international monetary relations, is not an ‘anti-European’ or
‘Euro-sceptic’: he is rather critical of the current European Monetary
Union, which in his view would be bound to either fail or damage some
countries, especially in eastern and southern Europe. It is, in fact, difficult to disagree
with these considerations. Moreover, why was Mr Savona’s appointment vetoed in
the first place? Was it because of ‘fear of the markets’? If that is the case,
where has democracy gone?

Techno-pop mix

After a tremendously long gestation, the
new Italian government includes an odd mix of ‘populists’, ‘technocrats’ (among
them the Prime Minister and the Economy and Foreign Affairs Secretaries), and
‘nationalists’ (mainly, the League). ‘Populism’ has become a catch-all
expression which is increasingly losing explanatory power. What we are
witnessing in Europe and the West is rather the rise of nationalist groups
(Trump’s ‘alt-right’, the UKIP, the Front National in France, Hungary’s Fidesz,
Poland’s ‘Law and Justice Party’ etc.) which often join forces with experts (or
‘technocrats’) and give rise to unusual ‘techno-pop’ blends.

Spain’s story looks quite different. Its economy has again been booming since 2015. Its institutional stalemate has
been resolved quickly: the Socialist Pedro Sanchez became Prime Minister just
two days after his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, had lost a crucial confidence
vote. Spain’s political system is efficient also because no-confidence motions
have to include the name of a new Prime Minister. Spain is a newer, ‘fresher’
democracy, born in the late 1970s and generally used to Left/Right alternation.
Spanish ‘populism’ has mainly taken root on the Left; let us think about Podemos. Although Spanish governments
have often included independent experts (and the Economy portfolio in the
current cabinet is in the hands of former EU Commission civil servant Nadia
Calviño), no ‘technical’ executives have ever been formed. That said, Spanish
politics is fraught with regional issues (Catalunya is the biggest example) and
the Spanish economy keeps raising more than one concern.

After all, the pre-2008 boom was mainly due
to a ‘financial-construction bubble’, which led to building about 5 million new
houses and left Spain’s territory dotted with ghost airports, railway stations,
and even towns. The current recovery, although in part based on more ‘solid’ sectors, has again a lot to do with
finance and housing, which in turn is linked to tourism.

Southern Europe

Italy’s economic structures are very
different, being based on a traditionally strong and export-led manufacturing
sector. The two countries’ economies and political systems have more
differences than similarities, and putting them in the same ‘southern European
(not to mention ‘periphery’) basket’ is to some degree misleading.

While Italy’s issues of public debt and
corruption and Spain’s property ‘hangover’ cannot be denied, the EU has
responsibilities in both countries’ economic troubles. Under the Maastricht
parameters, Italy and Spain, which are used to stronger state intervention in
the economy, risk a future of marginalisation, as happened to eastern Europe
under neoliberal austerity policies in the 1990s.

Moreover, a democratic Europe cannot afford
a future of populist nationalism combined with technocracy. The latter is after
all a mask to cover neoliberal politics dictated by the EU or EU-led elites, as
Italians know well, having lived through Mr Amato’s harsh austerity measures in
1992. Europe deserves better.

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